One of the main talking points of Apple's recent product rollout has been the company's increasing push into the enterprise world. To date, Apple has benefited largely from the BYOD trend, since its mobile devices are the most popular among consumers. But the new iPads and iPhones are more business friendly than any of the company's previous mobile devices, and Apple hopes that more organizations will begin to use them exclusively.
On Monday, Reuters reported that Apple has hired a dedicated sales force to talk with potential major clients and is working with several developers to create specific business apps. The company already signed a partnership with IBM in July, and its current targets include Citigroup, DuPont and Procter & Gamble. Software developers PlanGrid and ServiceMax, which specialize in corporate apps, are reportedly on board.
"The field service market alone is a $15 billion market," said ServiceMax CMO Stacey Epstein to Reuters. "One of our accounts may have thousands of field service technicians. It's a huge market opportunity for Apple."
More companies are providing their employees with tablets, and Apple wants to make the iPad the device of choice. By collaborating with well-positioned enterprise IT businesses, the company hopes to achieve that goal. CNET says the Apple-IBM collaboration will be in full gear next year.
Companies that want to adopt Apple devices throughout their organization can turn to Apple support specialists who can carry out iPad deployment and train employees and supervisors to take full advantage of the platform's growing enterprise functionality.
